Barber Gary Knutson doesn't slow down, he just shifts gears

Gary Knutson, who cut hair at Elite Barber Shop for 37 years, is now opening his own shop at his Larimer County home north of Longmont. His shop is set up in his garage, where he also practices his lifelong hobby of restoring classic cars. (Lewis Geyer / Longmont Times-Call)

Gary's Barbershop

Gary Knutson is cutting hair at his Larimer County home from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturdays. Call 303-709-2546 for scheduling information and directions.

Gary Knutson said he didn't sleep well for many nights after he decided to walk away from being a barber at downtown Longmont's Elite Barbershop.

His wife, Sandi, said she understood why. After all, he'd been cutting hair there 37 years.

"He'd been doing the same thing in the same place, and change is hard," Sandi said. But, she added, she knew he couldn't completely hang up his clippers. And he hasn't.

"I just decided to change direction and move out," Knutson said. "How would I say it — just to kind of slow down in my old age.

"Wait, I don't know if I want to say that. ... "

"Slow down" and "old age" are relative terms when it comes to Knutson, who'll turn 70 in January. He'll continue cutting hair three days a week, it's just that now he'll be doing it out of the same building where he pursues what he calls his real passion — restoring classic cars.

While his haircutting career dates back more than five decades, he's been restoring cars longer than that.

"This is what I've been doing all my life," Knutson said, lifting the hood on his blue, 1967 Chevelle Super Sport to reveal a 427, V-8 engine packing 500 horsepower. "I had one of these brand new in '67 — a red one."

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A comfortable living

"Is this a man-cave or what?" Sandi asked, as she and Gary led some visitors into his garage last week, where the room is dominated by two 1968 Z-28 Camaros in various stages of restoration.

In one corner of the room is his new single-chair barbershop, which Knutson has decorated with various hair-cutting paraphernalia he accumulated over the years: a tub of Royal Crown Hair Dressing; a vial of dry powder from the 1920s that was used to hand-make hair lotion; a picture on the wall of the 1920 graduating class of the Sioux City (Iowa) Barber College.

The barber chair in Gary Knutson's new shop has a Hurst shift lever welded to the side, appropriate since Knutson's lifelong hobby has been restoring cars. (Lewis Geyer / Longmont Times-Call)

Though he wasn't a part of that class, the Minnesota native earned his barber stripes at that college.

Knutson said that as a farm boy, he would take work during the summer doing "custom bailing" — contracting with local farmers to harvest and bale hay.

He said it was on one of those hot teenage days when he had his epiphany about barbering being a profession he could pursue.

"I broke a part and I had to go to town, and when I went to the welding shop he was closed, and a sign said he'd be back in a little while," Knutson recalled. "So I said, I'll run down and get a haircut. It was hotter than heck. And when I walked in there it felt like it was 3 below."

The man cutting hair was just a few years older than him, a farm boy like himself, and Knutson noticed that instead of being out toiling in the sweltering heat, the barber was quietly cutting hair and enjoying conversation with his customers.

The light bulb — or was it the light from a barber pole — went off in his brain, he said.

Fast-forward to Knutson's graduation from the Sioux City Barber College followed by his hanging his shingle in Iowa, where he spent 14 ½ years cutting hair. During his many trips to Colorado over the years — often for car shows — he realized that the weather here was, for much of the year, considerably more agreeable than the upper midwest. Knutson moved to Longmont in 1977.

He still has fond memories of his time at Elite, he said — a local shop that dates back to around the time of the founding of Longmont in 1871. And during his decades there Knutson became enough of a Longmont icon that Gamma Acosta chose to feature him as part of the Longmont history mural he painted in the 300 west block of Main Street breezeway in downtown.

"I just think that's the coolest thing," Knutson said. "It's part of memorabilia. I'm not talking about me on the wall, I'm talking about — that's history!"

Cuts and cars seem a perfect match

Knutson has cut generations of Longmonters' hair. In the case of one family he knows, five generations, he said.

Customers — young or old — who show up to Knutson's new shop to get their hair cut and have to wait won't want for a lack of something to do. There are plenty of interesting things to draw one's attention.

Even the barber chair is vintage.

"This is the Cadillac of what I was looking for — a 1959 model," Knutson said.

Added Sandi: "When he decided he was going to set up (his shop) here we went on Craigslist and found it and went and got it the next day."

A woman in Dacono had inherited the barber chair from her father, who had added some custom touches. A Hurst shifter — used for manual transmissions in race cars and muscle cars — is welded onto the side, and a metal Harley Davidson plate is welded to the arm of the chair where the ashtray used to be.

And when they went and picked up the chair the woman selling it recognized him, Gary Knutson said: He had given her son his first haircut.

The tile under the barber chair? He just had that lying around in storage, and it's just a happy accident the tile perfectly matches the colors of the chair.

With two cars in the garage, one in the adjacent paint booth, several under tarps on the property and 3 ½ acres of land he has to maintain, this will be far from an idle summer for Knutson. Added to his list of things to do will be catching up with his customers during the 2 ½ days a week he'll be cutting hair. At least 2 ½ days a week, that is.

"The nice thing is," he told some visitors to his shop last week. "I will have people who call me on a Sunday afternoon because they've got to catch a plane. And I'll come out here, flick the light on and I'm ready to go."

Gary Knutson, who cut hair at Elite Barber Shop for 37 years, is now in semi-retirement, having set up shop in the same garage where he restores classic cars at his Larimer County home. (Lewis Geyer / Longmont Times-Call)

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